The Dagworth Granger files
by slytherinsal
Summary: this was written in response to a request of what might happen if Severus had not suffered the worst of the bullying at the hands of the Marauders. Instead, his mother takes him to America to go to school, but he remains in contact with Lily by letter, and when she is in trouble, he returns with a new identity, and brings what he has learned to her aid.


_This one is at the request of ThePhoenixandtheDragon_

 **The Dagworth-Granger file**

Lily stood by the great lake, holding her best friend's hands, her thirteen-year-old green eyes wells of desolation.

"I'm going to miss you, Sev," she whispered. "You will write?"

"Of course I shall, Lily," Severus assured her. "Will you ... wait for me, and marry me when we leave school?"

Her eyes were startled, and she blushed.

"Sev ..." she bit her lip. "I ... I don't think of you that way. You're a brother to me in the way Tuney ought to have been a sister. I lost a sister and gained a brother when Magic came to me. I'm sorry."

Devastation welled up in his dark eyes, but he fought it down and made himself smile.

"Then I'll be a brother for you. If you ever need me, I'll be there."

She gave a wan smile.

"Hard, if you are in America, hiding from Tobias."

He shrugged.

"One day I'll be able to take on my father on my own terms. But we had to leave before my mother's suppression of her magic kills her. I'm just glad I was able to talk her into it. When she picks me up from King's Cross, we are taking the international portkey she arranged when she brought me for the summer term, straight to America. When you next see me, I'll look and sound like the Lone Ranger," he joked.

"Huh, if you only pick up a tan, you'll look more like Tonto," said Lily.

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" _Dear Lily,_

 _Everything is BIG here in America. I am now a student of M.I.W.S., the Magical Institute of Washington State, and guess what, we do have Red Indians in the class! They mostly come from the Sealth tribe, after which Seattle is named. It's beautiful. The Cascade Mountains sweep down to Puget Sound in steep, tree-clad valleys, and wherever you go, you can see Mount Rainier [pronounced 'Raneer', not in the French fashion] and her snow-clad crests. Often the mountain stands above the clouds, looking like a magical island floating in a sea of cloud. Makes me think of the tales of Merlin and Avalon._

 _I'm doing well at school without having to dodge the petty cruelties of Slytherin House on the one hand, and the Marauders on the other. I hope they are leaving you alone, but then, you're one of McGonagall's favourites, so I hope she's protecting you. It's nice not to be assumed to be the guilty party just for house affiliation and not to be punished for being bullied. The head – no, the PRINCIPAL here is very strict, and doesn't allow bullying. I have to say I am favourable surprised to find very little racism, considering what I've read, but one of my classmates shrugged and said 'this is Seattle' as though that explained it all. And perhaps it does. Did you know this is where the original Skid Row is, it was for skidding timber down to the docks, and the owner, Henry Yesler, gave his Indian workers the day off to rebel? It was a pretty bloodless rebellion more on the matter of principle, I think. Anyway, it means there aren't any serious tensions._

 _I've been offered the chance of an Apprenticeship in Potioneering if I continue to do well, so of course I am working like stink. I'll serve part of it with the Tribe as well, so I will learn Native American methods too. They prefer that name to Red Indians, so I am getting used to it, and trying to forget anything we saw when we snuck in the back of the Odeon to watch cowboy flicks._

 _Stay well, Lily,_

 _Severus."_

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" _April 2_ _nd_ _, 1981_

 _Dear Severus,_

 _Firstly, congratulations on your double mastery in Potions and in Defences Against The Dark Arts! It was interesting to read that many practises considered dark here are light or grey in America, I suppose it's because family secret magic is often held by purebloods and it frightens the bejazus out of the Ministry. I've actually used the Potter Grimoire to place a blood protection on Harry._

 _You probably have read about the troubles in England. There is a stupid prophecy about Harry or Neville [You recall I wrote that my friend Alice had married Frank Longbottom? They had a son the same day as we had Harry] which says that the one to defeat the Dark Lord approaches, born as the seventh month dies, and the Dark Lord shall mark him as his equal, whatever that may mean. He's supposed to have some power Voldemort knows not, and the worrying thing is that 'none shall live while the other survives.' We are under the Fidelius charm and Sirius insisted that Peter should be our secret keeper as nobody would suspect him. But oh! Severus, do you think you could come to England briefly, to ward a small room with an extra fidelius? If you are in America, they cannot reach you if you are a secret keeper, and I will do anything to keep Harry safe. James has agreed and has promised to start again if you will be prepared to do so too. He isn't a prat any more, and he's truly sorry for making assumptions about you based on your family House. Let me know as soon as you can, please._

 _Your friend, Lily."_

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The meeting with the Potters had gone surprisingly well, and now there was a room next to the nursery with another fidelius charm on it, with a ready-bag and supplies for a siege. Severus had wanted to have the cellar used, but James was adamant.

"They come in the night. Chances are we couldn't get to the cellar. If it's next to Harry's room, all Lily has to do is grab him and go through the door. It's safer."

He'd been civil enough, and Severus was ready to forgive, after all, they had all been children, and children grow up. And the reasoning made sense.

Even if James did insist on calling him 'Tonto Snape' for his dark tan from mountain walking and the fact that he now wore his long black hair in plaits like the Native Americans of the Cascades.

"Technically, it's currently 'Prince'," said Severus, mildly. "My mother petitioned to be received back into the Prince family and was accepted; she paid a goblin assassin to take out my father, and this was considered enough of an act of good faith. However, I've been researching other connections."

"Haha, I doubt you're related to the Potters," said James.

"No, but I am related to the Evans family," said Severus.

"Really?" Lily was interested.

"I suppose growing up in the same neighbourhood, two magical children would be a coincidence," said James.

"Yes, and actually I'm related twice," said Severus. "My father counted as a squib, as it turns out, from several generations non-magical descent, and so does Lily's mother. And the Prince family line has marriages into the same descent too, and it explains a lot about our shared interest in Potions."

"No! Not the defunct Dagworth-Granger line?" exclaimed James.

"Indeed, but I'd be obliged if you kept it to yourself," said Severus. "I'm considering claiming it, though there is another, in direct male descent."

"I swear on my magic I won't tell anyone, even the other Marauders," said James. "Largely because if anything happens to me, if Lily holds the same blood, so does Harry, and that means you can claim them as kin. I wager if anything happens to me, Siri will die beside me, Peter is no sort of father figure, Remus is out for his furry little problem. Lily told you about that, I think?"

Severus nodded. Lily had written, furious, that the Marauders had been so irresponsible as to become animagi, and even if it was to protect poor Remus when he was in werewolf form, they had no right to risk him by frolicking in the Forbidden Forest instead of keeping him safe in lockdown in the Shrieking Shack.

A potion to drop a werewolf into dreamless sleep for the duration of the full moon, inhibiting the change, had been one of Severus' Mastery projects, inspired by what Lily had told him, and he freely shared the formula with Lily for Remus, who had often tried, albeit rather weakly, to stop the Marauders from being such bullies. Severus nodded agreement to James' question.

"We've left wills; Sirius is Harry's godfather, and Alice his godmother, so there are the Longbottoms. But another option is good, and that would be a hidden option," said Lily. "No way is he going to Tuney and her walrus. Dudley is already a small whale. What of this descendent of the Dagworth-Grangers?"

"He counts as a squib,technically," said Severus, "Though like your family, the number of generations are such that without research, he'd be considered a muggle. He has a daughter, nine months older than Harry. I ... I did a ritual. She's a witch."

"I must try to meet them," said Lily.

"No; it's too dangerous," said James. "Stay under the fidelius charm, Lily; I don't exert my power as head of the house often, but I am going to do so now."

Lily bowed her head in acceptance.

"Sev, are you going to contact him?"

"I ... I thought I might. I will write, as a member of the family from America. I know how to dress as a muggle."

"Yes, you scrub up pretty well, these days," said James. "Ugly little brute you were at school."

Severus shrugged.

"Poverty and child abuse show," he said. "Be thankful you have so many people ready to take Harry; if anything happened to you two, and child services placed him with Tuney, I wager at eleven he'd look like I did."

James shivered.

"Goose walked over my grave," he said. "That sounded almost prophetic. Please, Severus, do anything in your power to prevent that."

"I so swear," said Severus.

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"Nice to meet you, Mr. Prince," said Dan Granger. He was relieved that Severus Prince was plainly a very wealthy man, by the way he dressed and held himself, not some poor relation hoping to scrape an acquaintance on a rather tenuous familial connection.

"Severus, please. May I call you Dan, cousin?"

"Why not? What prompted you to look us up?"

"Well, I was visiting the old country; I was born here, and went to see my cousin, Lily. It's as tenuous a connection as with you, but family is family. And you never know, you might want to move to the States one day, or bring your little girl on a visit. As well to know each other, for every eventuality. Oh, my, she is precocious."

The small child with a bush of brown hair was tired of waiting for her drink, and summoned it to herself. Dan gave a sickly grin.

"I ... there's not a lot I can say," he said.

"Oh, it's perfectly normal for a young witch of considerable power to display accidental magic," said Severus. He gestured, and sent the fingers of bread and butter Emma was cutting for Hermione to set beside the child. "You don't have to worry, Dan; you're descended from a magical family, and my other cousin's son will one day be going to school with Hermione to learn how to control it better."

Dan stared.

"That ... that explains a great deal," he said, weakly. "It surely beats the fear we had that she was an alien."

"No Jedi, so far as I'm aware," said Severus. "Oh, well, I'll let you have my official card as well as my muggle – non magical – identity. Keep it safe, and keep it secret. If things get worse, I might have to shift you out of the country in a hurry."

"What do you mean?" asked Emma, sharply.

"There's a magical war going on," said Severus. "A terrorist who calls himself Lord Voldemort is terrorising those who are not purebloods. Your daughter would be seen as a muggleborn, as there are so many generations involved. I'd like, at some point, to register her with a bank account as a halfblood, which technically she can claim to be, and you, Dan, as a squib, a magical scion who has no magic. It will protect you more. But I think you need time to come to terms with it?"

"Yes, indeed," said Dan, fervently.

"Very well; I'll get back to you on that," said Severus.

"What is a potions master?" asked Dan, looking at Severus' card.

"I brew potions. I suppose you could say I have the equivalent of a doctorate in chemistry; so we have a similar level of education. I make and sell potions, and because I am very, very good, I make a lot of money from it. I've invented quite a lot of potions, and the American wizarding schools use the textbook I wrote for advanced potioneering. We share a famous ancestor."

"Fascinating," said Dan. "We must get together with this cousin; somehow I fear that Hermione might have trouble making friends if she has to keep this scary secret. Her mother had enough trouble just for being a bibliophile."

Severus smiled grimly.

"I've walked that path myself," he said. "My cousin Lily was my only friend when I was a child. However, I've made some excellent friends in America. I had better leave you to assimilate all this news. I will see you again, little Hermione," he added, softly. Maybe Harry would be luckier in love than he had been with his own distant cousin.

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The registering of himself as the heir to the Dagworth-Granger vault was easy enough. Severus disclosed that there was a direct descendent who was a squib, whose daughter was magical and the goblins acknowledged Hermione Jane Granger as a half-blood. Severus did not mention Lily and Harry. Being of the pureblood House of Potter was enough. Eventually Hermione would register on the book of magical children as a halfblood, and that, hopefully, would protect her.

Nobody had recognised Severus as he strode down Diagon Alley; who would associate a tall, nut-brown man who carried himself with confidence with the scrawny, sun-starved brat he had been, after all! Severus had every intention of maintaining a home in England, but as Severus Dagworth-Granger. Severus was not a name that was out of place for a pureblood wizard, and Severus had every intention of letting people assume he was pureblood. He had put matters into the hands of the goblins, and had added a considerable sum of money to the Dagworth-Granger account. It had not contained much in terms of monetary wealth, but the notebooks he had shrunk and had taken to peruse. He would have access now to secret Granger and Dagworth recipes and spells. And that would be very useful.

He had given instructions for a good sized house to be bought for him not far from Crawley, where the Grangers lived, and warded as well as could be. From there, he could better watch Lily's child and the Granger girl, and make sure that neither Voldemort nor Dumbledore got their hands on them.

Severus frankly considered Dumbledore's efforts as leader of the light to be laughable. One could almost suggest that his many manipulations, like trying to make Remus grateful to him, were the act of a lord as dark as Voldemort, but it was ever foolish to attribute to malice what could be explained by inefficiency.

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By Halloween, Severus had moved in. Dan Granger had consented to take Hermione to Gringott's to leave a drop of blood just the day before; it had taken a while to make up his mind.

To say that he was gobsmacked by Diagon Alley was putting it mildly.

"I should have agreed before, this is great!" he enthused.

"Well, you're here now," said Severus.

He had not long returned the Grangers to their home when he had a bad feeling about Lily. He apparated to Godric's Hollow where he had been added to the initial fidelius, with a scrap of paper from Peter, who had not been told.

The house was a smoking ruin. James' body lay by the remains of the front door. Peter Pettigrew was shouting,

"Master? Master?" and running hither and thither.

Severus went cold.

Peter had betrayed his friend and protector.

He shot a stunner into Peter, and magically bound him, ripping off his left sleeve. Sure enough, the dark mark was there. Severus left him for the DMLE, after levitating the rat's wand out of reach of the little man so that it might be available for evidence. He had been called on a lot by the White Council in America for forensic potioneering, so he knew procedure. There was another wand, which was not James' wand. Well, if the Dark Lord had lost his wand, so much the better. Severus snapped it, making sure to cut through the feather at its core. And then he saw Harry.

Harry was in the remains of his crib, with a bleeding scar on his forehead, crying. Lily! Severus could hear faint sobs.

The house had disintegrated under the force of the spells and it had disrupted the fidelius he had cast.

"I knew it should have been in the cellar," growled Severus. He dug in the rubble where he heard the sobs, and shortly after was able to pull Lily, bruised and shaken, from the wreckage.

"He killed Harry! The room collapsed and he killed Harry!" she was crying uncontrollably.

"No he didn't!" Severus gave her a little shake and turned her head to see her son, angry in his cot."

"Oh!" Lily hobbled over to the boy and picked him up. "James?"

"Dead," said Severus. "Peter betrayed you. Hold on to me; we're getting out of here."

Lily took his arm obediently, and Severus apparated her into his new house, dropping the wards mentally to allow for her and Harry. He would add them to the wards later.

"Let me look at that mark on Harry's head," he said.

"How is he alive? Voldemort cast the killing curse at him," said Lily. "I saw it, I was trapped, I couldn't stop it."

"The familial blood magic seems to have worked," said Severus. "It looks like it must have bounced the killing curse, mirrored it back on him. Somehow his very body has disappeared, and that looks like very dark magic to me. And this wound has a dark magic residue."

Lily gasped.

"He hasn't possessed my son, has he?"

"I don't think so. But let me prepare myself in a sweat lodge, and I'll perform a ritual to draw it forth."

Before he could go any further, a sudden CRAC! Heralded the arrival of a small, bushy-haired bundle in his arms, shaking uncontrollably.

"Hermione!" Severus was horrified. How had she done this? He gave her a quick hug. "Lily, take Hermione, and give her an anti-cruciatus, a quarter dose, my potions store is next to the kitchen. I'll be back." He apparated away.

It was too late. The Grangers' nice stockbroker-tudor house was razed to the ground, the remains burning merrily. The bodies of Dan and Emma lay twisted grotesquely in death, and Severus did not want to speculate whether they were twisted in agony from torture or merely from the contorting heat of the fire. One deatheater lay nearby, his mask penetrated by a single hole to the forehead. Presumably Dan had a highly illegal firearm. Severus kicked off the mask, and sneered at the face of Mulciber.

It was easy to see what Voldemort had planned, a culling of the muggleborn of the same age as Harry and Neville, as well as going after his prophesied nemesis.

And that meant he had to know the prophecy which Lily had mentioned.

They had probably shared it with all the Marauders, including Peter.

"Accio photo albums!" Severus tried. It was perhaps a vain hope; but a few charred books flew to his hand. There might be some photographs available, so Hermione would have something of her family. There was nothing more to do here and Severus apparated away, just as he heard the distinctive sound of others apparating in.

How come the DMLE were so fast arriving here, but not at Godric's Hollow?

Severus apparated back to Godric's Hollow, but at a distance, and disillusioned himself.

Sirius Black, with an outsize motorbike, appeared to be in an embrace of mutual comfort with Hagrid.

Hagrid? What was he doing there?

Severus crept closer to eavesdrop.

"Oh, Sirius, what am I going to do? Dumbledore asked me to bring Harry to him," sobbed the half-giant.

"Whatever for? He's my godson," said Sirius.

"He wanted teh keep him safe," said Hagrid. "You'd better come back with me."

"Not until I've cut Wormtail into bite sized chunks," said Black, viciously.

"Oh, leave him teh the aurors," said Hagrid. "I can't go alone, please."

Black nodded.

"You'd better come on my bike with me," he said.

The bike flew off; a preposterous disregard for the act of secrecy, let alone misuse of muggle artefacts, thought Severus.

He decided not to wait for the aurors. Someone had been bribed to be slow in response if anything happened here, and in the light of Hagrid being sent for Harry, Severus suspected it was as likely to be Dumbledore as it was Voldemort.

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"So, Lily, are we going to assume the prophecy is true or ignore it? I assume Voldemort would only come after you if he knew about it?"

"Yes, we have to assume Peter told him as much as he knew."

"Wait, he doesn't know all of it?"

"No, James and I decided not to tell the other Marauders more than that there was a prophecy; but Peter heard about half of it, because James was sounding off about how vague it was and was quoting it, but I heard a noise and opened the door, and there was Peter."

"You told me all of it."

"Of course I did; I trust you, my oldest friend. I never was comfortable around the Marauders, and besides, you are the paradigm of logic. You need reasons why."

"Is that a compliment or a criticism?"

"It just is, you idiot. Oh, _James_ , why did you have to go and buy time? If you'd only run into the room he would have searched the house and concluded we'd portkeyed away."

"He might still have razed it and seen you when the room disintegrated."

Lily sighed.

"I suppose you're right. But you'll have to give me room to grieve, Sev. I love – loved – James for the caring man he became. He suddenly grew up. It was after Remus almost ate Filch; he was roaming about and came face to face with him. That cat of his went for Remus, bravest thing I ever saw, and James and Sirius drove Remus off. And James spent the rest of the year helping Filch out, and casting medical transfigurations to lengthen the life of his cat."

"I will give you room to grieve, but Lily, for Harry's and Hermione's protection, I should marry you; a marriage of convenience. And we will have to perform a blood ritual adoption of them."

"Isn't that illegal?"

"Not to the goblins. And if Voldemort gains control, being born a muggleborn will be illegal."

"A good point. As to the prophecy, whilst I should like to have nothing to do with it, to flee to America, I fear that if the prophecy is true, then nothing on earth will stop a final meeting between Harry and Voldemort. And I would rather have him well prepared for that, and able to do so and be the one to survive. You will help me to train him?"

"Of course. If it is he, not Neville."

"And the dark lord shall mark him as his equal. That wound on his poor little head ..."

"Which I shall be addressing. I believe I may need a mix of potion and ritual and it will hurt him cruelly."

"Best to do it then while it is already hurting him."

Severus nodded.

He brewed a potion to absorb darkness, and gave it to Lily to hold, and then he went into his sweat lodge to prepare. At first, he had sneered at the primitive seeming rituals of the American Northwest, but the more he learned, the more he came to realise that they were merely the raw, and therefore often more powerful, versions of familial magic. And so he stripped to a loincloth and painted his face appropriately in the magical patterns which would enable him to better reach his core. At the culmination of the preparation, deep in the trance of magic, he slashed his own forehead to add the final ingredient of his own blood, freely given, to cleanse the blood of his beloved's son.

And when he had added the blood, he drew circles of power around Harry, while Lily held the little boy, dripping the potion into the scar. Severus began chanting in his harsh, deep voice. Harry screamed and screamed, and black oozing goo erupted from the wound with a thin squeal. Severus produced a jar from mid air, and summoned the ooze into it, sealing it with a word when no more came forth. He sank to his knees in exhaustion, and Harry fell asleep in mid whimper.

Hermione, in a cot, was standing up, watching, wide eyed.

"Sev, you had flickering of a great bird around you," said Lily, awed.

"Yes, Lily; I, too, achieved my animagus form; I am Raven, the cunning, who walks on the edge of darkness without falling, who uses whatever means are necessary. To some extent too, I have learned to be a shaman of Raven. It shapes my magic, and me, because the Native Americans are closer to their magic than we so-called civilised beings are. But then, you've dabbled in druidic magics, haven't you? And it's much the same."

"Sev, I do not fear you or draw back from you for being a part of wild magic. And I took an animagus form too, when I found out what the Marauders were up to. We complement each other, in the protection of the children, because I am wolf, the protector of pack, the one who sacrifices."

"How remarkable," said Severus.

David Eddings was, after all, an inhabitant of Seattle.

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With the blood adoption potions brewed, Severus and Lily had to persuade the children to drink the rather noxious potions, one for Harry from Severus, and two from Hermione for both her new parents. Hermione was rather better behaved about it than Harry. Then Severus and Lily drank their parental potions, two for Severus and one for Lily. Hermione's brown hair turned red and Harry's hair fell flat and his nose enlarged slightly. Severus found his own eyes had turned malachite green, and Lily's hair began curling.

"And now we can go as a family to Diagon Alley," said Severus. "I'm inclined to either bleach your hair or darken it, Lily."

"Bleach it; the wizarding world is as judgemental of dumb blondes as the muggle world, though anyone who underestimates Narcissa Malfoy is a sandwich or two short of a picnic," said Lily.

The marriage ceremony took place in Gringott's bank, and the toddlers were keyed to the Dagworth-Granger accounts.

"This one is heir to the Potter accounts," said Griphook.

"Client confidentiality is, I hope, in place?" said Severus.

"Yes, Mr. Prince," said Griphook. "Will his mother be magical guardian and regent?"

"Yes," said Severus. "And I will be magical guardian to our new daughter. And I think we'll drop the 'Dagworth'; it's cumbersome, and was only added for a dying family. Granger suits us all very well. Harry can change to 'Potter' when he is full grown. I don't want anyone else accessing the Potter vaults, though; I don't know if anyone else can?"

"Only his magical guardian, Mr. Granger," said Griphook. "However, you might want to consider as well to whom you will the Prince accounts."

"What do you mean?" Severus was confused.

"You became head of the family when your great grandfather died the other day," said Griphook.

"Bugger! That's all I need," said Severus. "Can you sit on that information?"

"Of course Mr. Prince-Dagworth-Granger-Snape," said Griphook.

"Griphook; enjoy giggling at my many names on your own time. Unlike Albus Percifal Wulfric Brian Dumbledore and his many titles, I don't actually enjoy it," said Severus, waspishly.

Griphook drew himself up.

"You know how to wound a goblin," he said. "I have sniggered in my time, but I have never, ever giggled."

Severus regarded him thoughtfully.

"Well, so long as you don't start doing so, I shan't have to tell anyone I heard you giggle, will I?"

"No, Mr. Granger."

"Good, I'm glad we understand each other. I will take the Prince family ring, but place it under concealment. It might be worth having another voting seat in the Wizgamot one day. Please have any Prince properties listed for me, and bring any books to my Prince vault to look at another time, clean out any dark items, and let me know if there are any elves. I will probably sell the properties, but I want to decide for myself. What was all that partying about in the street?"

"Fool wizards celebrating the sacrifice of Harry Potter to kill the Dark Lord," said Griphook with distaste. "He's not dead."

"And what would you know of it?" asked Severus.

"We have our own prophesy which speaks of seven vessels of rebirth," said Griphook. "I am thinking you got rid of one of them," he gestured to Harry's head.

"That was ... Merlin's bedsocks!" Severus was revolted. "I have it in an unbreakable jar."

"You should try to put it through the veil," said Griphook. "Though some say you might be able to find the others using it."

"I'm still coming to terms with 'others', plural," said Severus. "Seven! We are talking horcrux here, aren't we?"

"Yes, Mr. Granger," said Griphook.

"It looks as though we have a mission, Lily," sighed Severus. "Well, nobody said it was going to be easy to fulfil a prophecy. Griphook, I am grateful for all the information. May gold flow for you like a river, and may your enemies die painfully enough to regret irritating you."

"May all your endeavours prosper, and may your foes grovel fruitlessly at your feet," responded Griphook.

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To describe Dumbledore as baffled and furious would be an understatement. The monitors on Godric's Hollow had shown the breach to the fidelius, and Dumbledore had been delighted. He had his saviour who would be the sacrifice to fulfil the prophecy. He had always thought that Tom would go after the half-blood, rather than pureblooded Neville. When Hagrid and Sirius turned up without a baby, he started by asking Sirius what he had done with Harry, using his 'more in sorrow than in anger' voice, only to have Hagrid telling him that Sirius couldn't have done anything to Harry as he, Hagrid had arrived first. Hagrid was too limited to put over the idea that Sirius might have been with death eaters and went away only to come back later, and Dumbledore did not want to have to put such an idea in words of one syllable for the gigantic man when Sirius was there listening, and already furious at one betrayal.

"Voldemort musta took him," volunteered Hagrid.

"Where, though?" Sirius was distraught. "Albus, you have tracking charms on Harry, don't you? Where is he?"

"I'm sorry, my boy, but they have all failed," said Dumbledore. The complete collapse of the structure of the house and the flashes of magic had destroyed his subtle tracking charms. "We can only hope that the love of his parents is enough to prevent little Harry from being turned thoroughly dark."

"Hagrid, where was Lily's body?" asked Sirius.

Hagrid scratched his head, loudly, showering Dumbledore with some degree of debris.

"I di'n't see her body," he said.

"Lily said something about extra protections; she didn't specify what," said Sirius. "I wonder if she has taken Harry, and hidden somewhere?"

"Where, my dear boy?" asked Dumbledore.

"Potter Manor, perhaps," said Sirius. "I'll be back."

He did not find any sign of Lily at Potter manor, and returned, in despair. Remus would take this badly.

It was a couple of days before Sirius and Remus received a letter from Gringotts Bank, asking them to a meeting after the reading of James Potter's will.

Sirius narrowed his eyes.

James Potter's will. No mention of Lily.

Both turned up.

So did Albus Dumbledore.

Dumbledore had already attempted to seize the Potter vaults, and had been politely, but firmly, declined, since an heir to the vaults still lived. Explaining to the goblins that the heir had been kidnapped by a dark lord earned him bored and disinterested stares. Now he tried to explain that as the clear magical guardian of Harry Potter, he should have control of the greater part of the vaults, as Sirius would understand.

"No I wouldn't," said Sirius. "I'm his godfather, not you, and I'd rather have Harry back safe than this bloody faffing around with money, I'm just hoping that the goblins, who actually work on logic, might know where he is."

"Patience, please, Mr. Black," said Griphook. "Gringotts will do its utmost to ascertain the whereabouts of any of its investors."

"Well at least somebody will," said Sirius. "Sorry, that wasn't meant to be rude; I never insult a goblin unintentionally. I prefer to enjoy my blood feuds with full concentration."

This earned him a toothy grin from Griphook.

"Mr. Black at least understands the ways of goblins," he said.

Griphook despised Remus, who was gentle and polite to everyone, Sirius Black was rude when he felt like it, but would follow through any intentional insult.

The will was moderately standard; it named Sirius and Alice as godparents, banned Petunia from having anything to do with Harry, and left all the estate to Harry, to be accessed on his fourteenth birthday, when he was to be emancipated unless his mother had a good reason to oppose this, with his mother as regent until that time, with full access to the main vault and his trust vault, the latter to pass to Harry James Potter on his eleventh birthday. There were small legacies to individuals, including Remus.

"What about Lily's will?" asked Dumbledore.

Griphook gave him a fishy stare.

"It's not customary to read wills until people are dead, Chief Warlock," he said.

"YES!" Sirius pumped the air with a fist.

Remus' dull eyes brightened.

"Well, in that case, why isn't Lily here to hear the reading of the will?" asked Dumbledore.

"A proxy is acceptable to the goblin nation," said Griphook.

"Ah, she wished me to be her proxy?" Dumbledore beamed.

"In your dreams, chief warlock," said Griphook. "You weren't actually invited, so I'm not sure why you're here. Mr. Potter did not name you in his will."

"But naturally, I am a close friend of the family ..."

"Mrs. Potter informed me that you were not to be permitted any information about where in the world she had taken her son for safety and that you can take your prophecy and stick it up your robes," said Griphook, who was enjoying himself. Lily had argued Severus out of making a coarser comment, but Griphook had enjoyed the fluency with which the young potioneer had been able to curse when he discovered that Dumbledore had attempted to access the vaults already.

While Griphook was keeping Dumbledore busy, a couple of more menial goblins had motioned to Sirius and Remus to follow him, and by the time Dumbledore realised they had gone, it was too late to see where.

The pair were led to a conference room where a blonde woman and an apparent Native American were waiting.

"What's this?" Sirius was puzzled.

"Padfoot, I dyed my hair," said Lily.

"And curled it," said Remus.

"No, that was the adoption potion for my new daughter," said Lily. "Now I want you both to take out your wands and swear an oath on your magic that you will do all in your power to help and protect Harry. And Hermione, for that matter."

"Gladly, for Harry, who is Hermione?" asked Sirius.

"Hermione is a child of the line of the Dagworth-Grangers, but seemingly a muggleborn, her parents were also killed on Halloween," said Lily. "She'll be in the same year as Harry at school, she's 9 months older."

"Fair enough," Sirius said, and swore the oath, casting his patronus after to show he had lost no magic. Remus followed, casting his patronus of a stag, not so magnificent as James' stag, being only a hart of four, not a hart of ten.

"Good," said Lily. "Now I can tell you how I'm protecting Harry. And yes, I have a marriage of convenience, because it makes it easier to hide."

"Either of us would have been willing to do that," said Sirius.

"Sirius, you're courting Marlene Mackinnon, and if you think the ministry would stand still for me marrying a werewolf, sorry Remus, but that's the quickest way for Dumbledore to declare himself Harry's guardian, and to take him from me as I was plainly temporarily deranged. I'm muggleborn, remember?"

"Leaving aside the way you've put it, would it be so bad to have Dumbledore raise him?" asked Remus.

Lily quoted the prophecy in full.

"I worked it out," she said. "He knew that the marking of Harry would result in a horcrux and planned to get my baby to grow up believing he had to sacrifice himself to get Voldemort killed."

"A WHAT?!" screamed Sirius.

"A horcrux," said Lily. "According to the prophecy the goblins have, he made seven."

"Do you have any idea what a horcrux is?" demanded Sirius.

"I have a very good idea, which is why I am so pissed off with Dumbledore for setting up my Harry to be one, and to having Hagrid arrive to steal him away as soon as his ruddy wards went down, and in bribing the DMLE to be late on the scene," said Lily.

Sirius stared.

"Have you any proof?" he asked.

"Surely Dumbledore would not do that? He's a great man," ventured Remus.

"Proof? Only a series of ... coincidences. I don't believe in coincidence," said Lily, coldly. "Can you think of a reason Hagrid was there? How did you know to go to Godric's Hollow, Sirius?"

"Dumbledore sent me a patronus and ... Oh. I see."

"Remus; Severus once told me that he believed that Dumbledore offered you a place at Hogwarts so that he had someone of great strength who would be eternally grateful to him, who would make a perfect tool. I remember that he was not especially happy that you ran with the rest of the Marauders, he was always finding special jobs for you, remember? Things calculated to take you away from your friends."

Remus blinked.

"But why would he do that?"

"Because if you were isolated from your friends, he would be the only person you would have to turn to. And he dropped a lot of heavy hints about your condition in the fifth year, in the hopes that if James, Sirius and Peter figured out you were a werewolf, they would shun you."

"But we'd known since around Christmas of the first year," said Sirius.

"Dumbledore didn't know that though, did he?" said Lily. "I think the concept that you stuck by him, and even became animagi for him floored him. He was most put out, if you think back, once he realised."

"She's right," said Sirius. "I recall him saying to James that we should not really be sneaking out at full moon in case of werewolves in the forest, and James, cheeky bastard that he always was, said 'that's all right, sir, we have ways round Remus' furry little problem.' And he looked furious. I thought it was fury at us becoming animagi without guidance, but I think it was over us continuing to be your friends."

"He wanted a spy to slip into Voldemort's ranks, and who less suspect than a werewolf," said Severus. "I do wonder if he initially asked Peter to spy, and that's how he became terrorised into joining for real."

"Excuse me, and you are?" asked Sirius.

"Now I am Mr. Dagworth-Granger, husband of Lily Dagworth-Granger and potion-ritual father of Hermione and Harry Dagworth-Granger," said Severus. "You used to call me Snivellus, but somehow I don't think it fits a double mastery in potions and DADA."

"Bloody hell," said Sirius. "You don't look like a Snivellus any more."

"Assuming Lily and I are both joining the Marauders as part of our protection of Harry, you can find a name for my animagus form and hers."

"You're an animagus, Lily?" Sirius was amazed.

"I figured that if you idiots could manage it, I certainly could," said Lily. "I'm a wolf."

"I'm a raven," said Severus.

Sirius looked at Remus.

"Messrs Padfoot and Moony hereby induct ... Slink and Shadow into the Marauders. Mischief Managed." He said. "Where have you been all this time? Did we drive you away? We've been feeling guilty for years in case we drove you to suicide."

Severus smiled, grimly.

"It won't have done you any harm to think on the possible effect of cruel pranks," he said. "My mother fled from my father; we went to America. Where I learned Shamanic magic to add to the Thaumatergic magic of our own traditions. I stayed in contact with Lily, whilst making my fortune with my potion making. And I came back to meet with James and Lily to set up another fidelius held in my own name, which is how they survived."

"And if we had put it in the basement where you wanted to, James might have survived too," sighed Lily.

"And then Neville would have been marked as Voldemort's equal, with a horcrux," said Severus.

"Wait, the horcrux, what are you going to do about it?" asked Sirius.

"Severus used a combination of potion and ritual to remove it," said Lily, in some satisfaction. "I suspect that will irritate Dumbledore too; he may have hoped for a connection to Voldemort, when he gets a body back. But that is gone."

"Sounds like you've been learning a lot, Shadow, mate," said Sirius. "Care to teach us any of it?"

"It will make us all stronger if we pool knowledge," shrugged Severus.

"Severus," said Remus, "I hope you are not going to make a marriage to Lily anything she does not want, by making her feel guilty. I know you had a big crush on her."

"I love Lily, and because I love her, I will not touch her unless she ever wishes it," said Severus, softly.

"So long as that is understood," said Remus. "So, what is the plan?"

"The plan is to use the horcrux out of Harry as a lodestone to find the rest," said Severus. "And if we are all working on that, the hopefully we shall have destroyed them all by the time Harry and Hermione get to school, and Harry can openly claim his inheritance."

"It would be easier if we asked Dumbledore to help, without telling him where you are," said Remus.

"Remus, you know he uses legilimensy on people as a matter of course, don't you?" said Lily. "James caught him at it, as he was trained by his parents in occlumensy, and James taught me. Sirius, I suppose you learned?"

"Not very well, I wasn't interested in my family," said Sirius.

"I know no occlumency," said Remus.

"Then no involving of Dumbledore," said Lily. "I do not plan for my son to be sacrificed 'for the Greater Good' in the gospel according to Albus too-many-names. He probably means well, but I don't like his methods. Sirius, if you can strengthen your occlumensy shields, you might ask him what he has heard about Voldemort making horcruxes and see if he tells you. I wouldn't mind betting he's known Voldemort planned to make them for a while, even if he doesn't know the number."

"What should I say if he asks me about it?" asked Sirius.

"Tell him that you heard a rumour of a non-human prophecy about seven vessels of rebirth," said Severus. "Tell him that you poked around in the Black family library and came up with the word 'horcrux' as a vessel of rebirth."

Sirius nodded.

"A plausible cover story," he said. "And I can imply it was the centaurs. I'm shocked by his callousness, but I wouldn't want him to meet an, er, AXEident as a result of pestering goblins. And I wager he'll get nothing but drivel from the centaurs, who can't tell a straight story to save their lives."

"Exactly," said Severus, dryly.

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Dumbledore took what he felt was the logical step of visiting Potter Manor. Lily might not have been at home to Sirius, but he was certain she would see him.

He was most upset to bounce out of the floo.

Lily had anticipated this move, and had gone to remove him permanently from the wards, adding Severus and Hermione. It was irritating that Dumbledore suffered from tunnel vision and had the inclination to see himself as a chess master, moving his pawns by set moves. Life wasn't like a chess game, but he was too old and too set in his ways to be told that, convinced that his view of life was the only one, and all other views were of necessity wrong. He could be kindly, and Lily sighed, knowing that if he had got control of Harry, doubtless her son would have learned to adore an indulgent grandfather, and would have willingly done his duty as a sacrifice.

It was a pity someone could not return Dumbledore to childhood and bring up such a brilliant and powerful wizard a bit better. Maybe Severus could invent a potion to do it, she thought whimsically.

Lily had also asked the two Potter elves to come and help her care for Harry and his adopted sister, and maintain Potter Manor only from time to time. It was ridiculous not to give employment to Tilly and Mulley, as that kept elves happy, and she really could do with the help.

Severus Granger, meanwhile, applied to be tested for a mastery under English law, presenting an original potion he had been developing before Lily had called on him for aid, and arranged to have American ingredients imported as an exotic allure in the shop he planned to set up as a front. He had to have some kind of presence in the wizarding world, and since he could pass as a Native American, he decided to dress as one, with a robe decorated with beads and wampum, and feathers and beads in his long plaits. He spoke passable Lakota Sioux, which was a _lingua franca_ in the Native magical world, and added the name 'Kangee' to his other names. It suited the persona.

He had a long term potions project as well. Though he and Lily had been very much out of the social circles of the Wizarding World, Sirius had brought the shocking news that Frank and Alice Longbottom had been tortured to insanity, and Neville left shocked to the core. The reading of the will left Neville in the care of his godmother, Lily; and Lily had dithered much before deputising his upbringing to his austere grandmother providing she, Lily, had some say in his upbringing and education. Having another child of the same age in their household, and one from a family known to be allied to the Potters would destroy their cover as Grangers, and it would be indefensible to blood adopt Neville to be Harry's twin, since it was tantamount to Line Theft, or could certainly be interpreted that way. Poor Neville would have a strict guardian, but at least Augusta loved him. And if Severus could produce a potion to cure Frank and Alice, he might have his parents back.

Meanwhile, the New Model Marauders, as Remus described them, were dividing their time between educating children and hunting for horcruxes. Sirius was shocked when the 'horcrux compass' Lily and Severus had built took them to Grimmauld place, and Lily's careful handling of Kreacher had that morose elf capering in glee to have done his duty.

It was an act of faith in which Sirius ordered his cousin Bellatrix divorced and demanded the dowry back, and found the cup. The artefact in Malfoy Manor was going to be a problem, and so was the one in Hogwarts, but Sirius agreed to teach DADA for a term when the curse ejected the current incumbent.

Having learned a lot about warding and cursebreaking from Severus, Sirius set up a sweat lodge and rather self-consciously painted his face on the first Hogsmeade weekend, when fewer people were likely to notice him, with heavy wards on the passage to his classroom.

The ritual drew him out of his body to find the runes carved inside the hinge side of the door. And once he was back in his body, he had the door off its hinges, planning the runes away whilst chanting a counter-ritual.

"Sirius, what are you doing?"

It was Dumbledore.

"Removing the curse," said Sirius. "What, did you really think a Marauder would teach a cursed subject without actively seeking what caused the curse? Give me credit for creative paranoia and inventive investigation."

He was glad he had dressed and cleared away the tent before Dumbledore had turned up. Speaking to the Headmaster while dressed in a loincloth with warpaint on would have been embarrassing. Also, Dumbledore would have seen the selection of protective runes he had had tattooed onto his body, as had all the Marauders, and their son and daughter. Lily and Remus were skilled in runic magic, and Severus had brought whole new vistas of how to use them. _Damn, we make a formidable team, if only we'd befriended Severus not Peter,_ though Sirius. _Still, his experiences in America have been amazing._

"Do you really think that Voldemort would be so simplistic?" asked Dumbledore, swallowing his anger that he had never thought of it.

"Why not? He's shallow enough to desire power for power's sake," said Sirius. "I'll even stay on next year to prove that I've broken it."

"Very well, my boy, I hope you are correct," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. It would do no harm, if Sirius really had broken the curse.

Thinking about simplistic solutions, Sirius had a brief epiphany; and when he had got rid of Dumbledore, he sent for Kreacher.

"Listen carefully, Kreacher," he said. The old elf's ears went up; when the master used words like that, it usually meant there were options for him to use his initiative.

"Kreacher always listens carefully to master," said Kreacher.

"I know that, and interprets what he hears," said Sirius, and was rewarded with a mischievous grin. "I would like you to pop to Narcissa Malfoy, as a member of the Black family," said Sirius. "This is a prank Master Regulus would have loved. Let her think you are dissatisfied with me; you can call me a blood traitor and complain of my werewolf friend, happy to spend time with muggles and so on. Let her think you would spy for her, beg her to let you help her. I leave that to your excellent acting abilities. Your real job," his voice sharpened, "is to take the item finder, and retrieve whatever it is from Malfoy Manor, to destroy as we destroyed the locket."

Kreacher cackled in glee. He liked destroying horcruxes. And he liked playing pranks.

"Those Potter elves may care for the little master and little mistress, but Kreacher is the Marauder elf," he said.

He had good reason to feel gleeful; his elf magic had circumvented a lot of parseltongue traps at the Gaunt shack to get his master and Mister Remus inside it; and he was immune to the compulsion on the ring to put it on. A less independent elf would have hesitated before hitting his master, but Kreacher recognised someone acting under compulsion when he saw it. He had not belonged to the darkest family in Britain for over a century without seeing many dark things, and this was one of the darkest. He had whipped his master and friend out of the hut.

"Master can do fiedfyre from out here," he declared, firmly. After that, the ring was no problem.

Kreacher was definitely an honorary member of the Marauders. He looked younger for being happy and had discovered a muggle shop selling red and green Christmas fabrics, and now sported pillow cases he had made from it on a variety of red and green Christmas themes, to celebrate Gryffindor as well as Slytherin. Sirius had bought him garish costume jewellery brooches to fasten at the shoulders, and a belt, which was not clothing, but an accessory. Kreacher was a very colourful elf.

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Sirius enjoyed teaching. He found he had been in the position for three years, and as nothing had happened to him, the curse breaking seemed to have worked. Having found the diadem, and having had Kreacher steal the diary, they were short only one horcrux; and the horcrux compass seemed confused as to where that might be.

"Could be he makes it when he returns from spirit form," Remus suggested.

"Then we need to keep an eye on the compass and see when it activates," said Sirius. "The soul of Voldemort himself seems to be somewhere on the continent. I presume he has withdrawn to previously prepared positions. I don't think it's worth trying to track him, we can't kill it unless he is embodied."

"Agreed," Severus nodded. "Hermione and Harry will start school in another six years, I hope they will do so without any problems, but we have to assume that the prophecy may be true and it will take Harry to take down the poisonous little beast. He will know where to find Harry when he is eleven."

"Unless we go to America," said Lily. "And leave Sirius in Hogwarts to deal with him."

"Unless he can only be struck down by Harry," said Remus. "And no, I don't like it any more than you do."

"Sluggy is old," said Severus. "Why don't I apply to teach potions for a year when they are old enough to ... give me time out to research, as good an excuse as any, as Dumbledore doesn't know how much research Lily and I have done. We're close to the cure for Alice and Frank."

"You could claim that the fame is exhausting you, if you do cure them, and you want to hide in the walls of quiet academe for a year or two," suggested Remus. "That last improved Wolfsbane left me with nothing more than a bad hair day all over and a mouth like a three day binge. If you can cure lycanthropy, or at least keep it totally controlled, that will also add to your raging fame."

"And it wouldn't be far out," said Severus. "I am a private person, I don't like fame. I do like the recognition of my genius, though," he smirked.

"Sirius, Remus, I want to ask you something," said Lily.

"Anything," said Sirius.

"Sev, I'm probably going to shock you," said Lily. "It's been a number of years. I'll never stop loving James; but Sev and I are such good companions. I wouldn't mind if he started ... courting me. But I don't want you guys to be angry at what is my decision."

"It's up to you, Lily," said Remus.

Sirius found warring emotions coursing through him; and anger, sorrow, and love chased each other around his face.

"Lily, James was like a brother to me. I'd be unkind to deny my sister any kind of happiness, wouldn't I? Yes, part of me feels as though it's a betrayal, but ... but Severus is one of us, he's Shadow. And that means more than if you wanted to date an outsider."

Severus had paled beneath his tan, which he kept up with spells.

"Lily ..."

"Hush, Sev; we'll discuss it when we are alone," said Lily.

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James Severus was a matter of delight to the six-year-old Granger children when he arrived, and Rose Alice a couple of years later. The house of Granger was assured. They were on excellent terms with House Longbottom, especially when a potion by Severus and Lily working together managed to cure Frank and Alice, even if it did not take them to the same level of fitness they had once been. That and the potion to cure Lycanthropy assured the fame of the Dagworth-Granger potioneers all over again.

And to make sure that Ollivander would not guess who Harry was, and inform Dumbledore, the family took their own children and Neville to Seattle, to visit Eileen and to have wands crafted for them, rather than use the best-fit wands made by Ollivander. Harry managed to destroy a few preconceptions in having a wand of rowan, with a thunderbird feather core, and agate for control; and Severus pointed out to the astounded wand-crafter that in Norse mythology, Rowan was also known as Thor's tree of deliverance, and it looked as though Harry was going to be a storm-walker. Hermione flummoxed the wand-crafter as well in having two sides to her, and ended up with a willow wand with unicorn mane core for her healer side, and elder with a dragon heartstring for her aggressive side. As Severus said, she was a protector in more ways than one. Both of her wands included garnets.

Neville also managed to be different; his wand was mahogany, fairly standard, but the wandmaker had to go searching to find the combined cores for it of dryad hair and dittany. His crystal element was jasper.

"Someone is going to be innovative in herbology," said the wand-crafter. 

**Part 2, the new generation Marauders**

Harry and Hermione met up with Neville on platform 9 ¾. Neville was an alert young man, very proud of his new wand, which his father had taken him to buy. He grinned to see his playmates.

"Hi, Harry, hi, Hermione," he said.

"You haven't brought Trevor, I hope?" demanded Hermione.

"No, of course not; he wouldn't like school," said Neville. "Anyway, what sort of school pet would a toad be? I reckon Uncle Archie must be barking, but then, that's what Auntie Lily said when he dropped me off the pier, right before Uncle Sev cured Mum and Dad. But he has been helping me get nice plants for my greenhouse, so I guess he means well."

"So does the headmaster, Mummy says," said Hermione. "But she adds that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

"Oh, Gran doesn't have a good word to say about Albus Dumbledore, other than that he is a fine transfigurationist and one has to assume he knows what he's doing in his capacity as a headmaster."

The Grangers grinned. Neville had his grandmother's idiom and inflections to a 'T'.

"Mummy says that if he tries to play any tricks when we're up, she's going to rip of his head and piss down his neck," said Harry. "Dad will be on the spot as potions master, and Uncle Padfoot as DADA master, so we should be okay, apart from the fact that either one of us will find horrendous detentions if we get caught."

"Better not get caught then, had we?" said Neville, laconically. They sorted themselves out in a compartment, and Neville and Harry started a game of chess while Hermione re-read her favourite 'Hogwarts: a History.' She had the copy with the notes made in the margins by Sirius, which threw an often interesting light onto what was alluded to but briefly in the text.

The door opened to reveal a blonde boy, flanked by two rather lumpy boys.

"What have we in here?" asked the newcomer. "I only associate with purebloods."

"Hate to tell you, then, mate, but there's a couple of trolls behind you," said Harry, who had taken an instant dislike to the sneering face of the boy. Draco Malfoy flushed.

"And what was your blood status?" he demanded.

"Red," said Harry. "Piss off, blood snob."

"You will see that you can't push me around! My father ..."

"Your father is an idiot," said Hermione. "Just go away."

Draco pulled his wand, and three waved hands, not even bothering with wands, banished him out of the door and through his goons.

"If that's the best Slytherin House is likely to offer, I'm not sure I want to be in it, even with Dad as its head," said Hermione.

"Mum was a Gryffindor," said Harry. "But it would be particularly Slytherin of us all to go into Hufflepuff. Everyone rates Puffs as harmless so they'd never suspect us of Marauding."

"Besides, you fancy Susan Bones," said Hermione. Harry flushed.

"I like her, but I'm too young to fancy anyone," he protested.

"Well it's a good plan even if you do have an ulterior motive," said Hermione.

The door burst open again to reveal a red haired boy.

"Oh, Longbottom," he said, unenthusiastically.

"Weasley," said Neville, with as much enthusiasm.

"Well, I suppose you'll be Gryffindor," said Weasley. "What have you got along with you?" he indicated Harry and Hermione.

"I think you made a mistake in your use of interrogative," said Neville.

"Wot?" said Ronald Weasley.

"Yes, precisely," said Neville. "The interrogative when asking about people is usually 'who', not 'what'. I know your mother doesn't have time to teach you much at home, but you are one of the youngest so I would have thought you might have picked up more."

"Who needs stupid grammar?" demanded Ron.

"Someone who hopes to learn enough Latin to make spellcasting easier?" said Hermione, mildly, looking up from her book.

"Strewth, a swot! Get away from her, Neville, in case you catch it," said Ron.

He then howled as he went flying backwards out of the carriage.

"Don't insult my sister, you insufferable little swine," said Harry. Ron retreated; these weren't muggleborn as he had thought, not casting spells like that. He was irritated, he had hoped he could put them in their place and graciously lead them about like Malfoy led his goons about.

The boat ride to the castle was interesting, though Hermione and Harry had enough muggle knowledge to mutter about Disney. They were being sorted as Dagworth-Granger, and would be early in the alphabet, and Harry, as a new generation Marauder, had an idea.

When he went under the hat, it suggested that he would make a good Slytherin like his adoptive father had been for a while.

" _Stuff that,"_ Harry smirked. " _A good Slytherin has the cunning to be somewhere else; I fancy Hufflepuff to also celebrate the loyalty of my adoptive father to my mother, and the loyalty of my Marauder uncles. And as a Marauder, I so would like to prank some of the rest of the year, and maybe have less trouble with bullying between Gryffindor and Slytherin."_

" _You interest me greatly, what did you suggest?"_

" _Well, it's too late for Crabbe, but if he and Goyle and Malfoy were separated, they couldn't bully people easily. So if Goyle goes into Hufflepuff, we can sit on him there, and Malfoy hasn't got a subtle bone in his body, he's just like that Weasley git, so why not swap them? Malfoy into Gryffindor, and Weasley into Slytherin."_

The hat considered long and hard.

" _A prank worthy of your real father, but with more thought and true desire for a good outcome,"_ it said. " _very well, I place you in_ _ **HUFFLEPUFF."**_

Severus raised an eyebrow; but he knew his son, and was well aware that this was probably by design. When several other unexpected sorting occurred he was certain of it.

"Greg, come and sit with us," said Harry when Goyle, rather uncertainly lumbered up to the Hufflepuff table, following the sorting of a Justin Finch-Fletchley into Gryffindor. "So glad you lost that loser, Malfoy. Pity your friend went into another house, but the Badgers are loyal, I'm sure we can help you look out for him."

"Uh, thanks," said Gregory Goyle. He was not to know what was about to hit him, in being trained firmly to think for himself.

To say that Dumbledore was amazed by the sorting was an understatement. However, doubtless the hat knew what it was doing. For Lucius' son to be bold and brave seemed strange, but then, Narcissa's cousin Sirius had chosen the house of Lions. Maybe his young cousin was inspired by stories. As for the youngest Weasley boy, well, who could tell what went on in the mind of the youngest of six boys, who knew that his sister was very much wanted, and that his mother had hoped he would be a girl. Albus winced. Doubtless Molly would send one of her loud and ill-bred Howlers to the poor child, which was as likely to send the poor boy down a dark path as being in the house of Snakes.

But then, Severus Dagworth-Granger seemed a reasonable man, hopefully able to lead the Snakes out of the darkness. American Indians had different traditions regarding snakes, Albus thought, rather vaguely. And Professor Granger had married and had a number of children; the darker families seemed to be sufficiently inbred that they only managed one, or at best two children. Albus wondered what sort of a witch Madam Dagworth-Granger was; somehow he had never been able to meet her. Well, her older two children seemed to be on good terms with Neville, which was just as well, since Neville would need good friends to help him fulfil the prophecy. Albus sighed. He had hoped that Harry Potter would be on the train for Hogwarts, but Lily had plainly abrogated her responsibilities to the prophecy. He would not have thought it of her.

Albus had not looked at the information in the book of names, and if he had, he would probably not have connected Hermione Jane Dagworth-Granger, halfblood whose mother was Lily Anne, halfblood with Hermione Granger, muggleborn and Lily Anne Evans, muggleborn. That simple blood heritance test made all the difference, and one thing Lily wanted to do one day was to have all so-called muggleborn show their heritance. Albus had also forgotten a forlorn waif named Severus Snape, and would never have connected that boy with the confident and successful potions master. If Severus had returned, using the name Prince, then Albus might have added things up, knowing that Lily Evans and Severus Snape had been friends. But then, Albus rarely permitted facts to interfere with his understanding of the world. He would have to discourage a friendship with Gregory Goyle; the Goyles were dark. Unless ... no, the boy would not end up in Hufflepuff if he were dark, everyone knew Hufflepuffs were loyal to a fault and dull as ditchwater. Neville should have been in Gryffindor, the cues to go in search of the stone would have to be subtly different. His sense of duty must be appealed to. It was unfortunate, too, that he seemed on good terms with the niece of the head of the DMLE, who might take a dim view of some of his necessary efforts for the Greater Good. Well, maybe a friendship with Neville might make that strait-laced little madam less likely to report things to her aunt.

Albus Dumbledore proceeded to deliver his fatuous speech to the body of the school, and was fortunately unaware that the real boy-who-lived was rolling his eyes.

"What was all that about the third floor corridor?" asked Neville.

"Mum said something like this would happen," said Hermione. "He wants you, because he now thinks you are the prophecy, to go haring off investigating it."

"Why would I do that, if it's off limits?" asked Neville.

"Because you have to add up clues to save someone I expect," said Harry. "I expect he'll drop clues to you about it, and you have to assume a look of bovine idiocy and pretend not to get them."

"Copy the youngest Weasley in other words," said Neville, laughing.

"Exactly," said Hermione. "And you're up to speed with your occlumency; Dad says Dumbledore uses passive legilimensy as a matter of course."

"That's illegal," Susan Bones was listening in.

"Yeah," said Greg.

"Oh well, we'll teach you occlumency and you can report him to your aunt if he tries it on you," said Harry.

"Yes, I'll teach Susan and you can teach Greg," said Hermione, sweetly. "You wouldn't want a boy's grubby little thoughts in your head, Susan."

"Spoilsport," grinned Harry, winking at Susan.

"Will you teach my friend Hannah, too?" asked Susan.

"Certainly," said Hermione. "The more the merrier."

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The howler sent to Ron in the morning was no surprise to the older Weasleys in the school, but Severus was furious. The howler was incinerated before Molly Weasley's strident voice had got into its stride. Ron slumped in relief.

"Mr. Weasley," said Severus, "Do I infer from your body language that this is a common form of abuse from your mother?"

"She's always sending howlers to the twins," said Ron.

"Ah, a repeat offender. Child Services will be hearing about this," said Severus, whose first instinct had been to send a howler back to Molly Prewett Weasley, whom he recalled as a sanctimonious prefect. However that response was far too Gryffindor; doubtless it came of associating with Remus and Sirius.

"Really, Severus, I don't see any need for that," said Dumbledore. "Molly means no harm."

"Then she needs professionals to explain to her how much harm she is causing," said Severus. "The damage to a child's fragile ego by the use of such public humiliation is incalculable. Would you permit her to come in here, lift his robes and spank his bare buttocks?"

"Of course not, and she would not do such a thing!"

"But she is doing such a thing. Public humiliation is public humiliation, Headmaster, and I will not have my Snakes abused by their parents, however Minerva may feel about abuses to her Lions."

"I ... I had not considered it in that light," said Minerva, staring at Severus, and feeling guilty about the number of howlers Molly had sent in the past.

"Well, I think we need to break the cycle of abuse by helping protect our precious and sacred trust, the children, from any bullying, in school or from the home," said Severus. "If we can show scared, abused children that they have someone they can come to safely, then they will not feel that they have to pass bullying on."

"Come, now, Severus, surely a school like Hogwarts does not have abused children?" said Dumbledore. Severus regarded him levelly.

"The first-night medical check revealed to me two first year and several older children with clear signs of abuse. Minerva, Pomona, Filius, what did Poppy find in your houses?"

"We have three older children in abusive homes in Hufflepuff, and one first year," said Pomona. Minerva stared.

"I have never sent any of my children for first night checks; I would not have thought it necessary," she said.

"Perhaps it is about time you started, then," said Severus. "I had the older ones checked being new to being Head of House, but maybe you should do the same."

"Yes, Severus, I shall," said Minerva. "You were abused at home when you were in Hogwarts, weren't you?"

"You remember me? I am gratified," said Severus. "My mother and I left the country for a while to escape my father. And yes, I was an abused child. Filius, what is your policy?"

"I am ashamed to say, Severus, that I have assumed that the house of logic would have parents who would rise above such things, but perhaps like Minerva, I should check."

"It can't hurt, even if they do rise above such things as physical abuse," said Severus. "Clever tongues can abuse verbally and morally, leading to the binding of a child's core and potentially leading to outbursts of dangerously uncontrolled magic."

"You are quite correct!" squeaked Flitwick. "I will see what I can find out."

"And I will go and set up a ward line which will incinerate any howlers on their way in; or possibly return them to sender," said Severus. "You will excuse me, of course, Headmaster, this is most important."

Dumbledore was left with his mouth hanging open.

He was also very uncomfortable that he had no recollection of a Severus Dagworth-Granger, or even a Severus Granger.

The next excitement was the arrival of Lucius Malfoy, who was clearly not in a happy mood. Draco cringed.

Last night he would have welcomed his father's arrival to put people in their place, but that was before he had been rescued from his predicament by Professor Black. Draco had been thrust, naked, out of Griffindor tower for sounding off about his birth and position and wealth, and fortuitously, Professor Black had found him.

Draco had no idea that Sirius had been looking for him on the new, improved Marauders' map of which he and Severus each held a copy, a third copy being with the Granger children. And Sirius had wrapped the boy in his own robe and took him to his room for hot chocolate and a long chat.

* _ **flashback**_ *

"Draco, I am your mother's cousin, so that makes me feel some responsibility towards you," said Sirius.

"They'll pay! My father will see to that! The Malfoys ..."

"The Malfoys, my child, are upstart commoners," said Sirius. "They have some wealth. I could buy your father three times over, and if he does not fulfil his obligations to provide your mother with a second son and a daughter as the marriage contract dictates, I can order her divorced from him as head of the Black family, and find her a better husband. The Malfoys hadn't even been heard of until 1066, and at that point were the rag-tag and bobtail dangling at the arse of the Conqueror's army. Only by cheating goblins and somehow getting away with it in the eighteenth century did the Malfoys come to any prominence, and believe me, the goblins have long memories and are more than willing to find creative ways to fleece Malfoys back. Your father tries to push the position he has bought down the throats of everyone because he is not a member of a noble and ancient family like I am. He's a fraud, and the rest of us laugh at him. However, you are half Black, and if you have any of your mother in you, then you'll learn wizarding etiquette. I am amazed that Narcissa has taught you none; your behaviour is what I'd expect of the most pushy muggleborn."

That shocked Draco.

"I ... mother has taught me, but father said I should ignore pooftah manners and show the halfbloods and mudbloods who was boss."

"Oh dear, these nouveau riches are so appallingly vulgar," drawled Sirius. "I am sorry for your poor mother. Tell me, does she have any feelings for your father that she puts up with him behaving like that repellent Weasley boy?"

This was another revelation to Draco. He knew exactly who Sirius Black was, and that he was potentially the most influential man in Britain. He was not a man to cross.

"Mother and father don't spend much time together," he admitted.

"No, I can see why," said Sirius. "One hopes your father at least has better tablemanners than the redhaired gobbler."

"My father's table manners are impeccable!" cried Draco.

"Well, thank goodness for small mercies," said Sirius. "Listen, we'll make a deal. I'll look out for you, and stop them bullying you, but you have to be civil to the boys in your dorm, and apologise ... yes, apologise," as Draco jerked in horror, "for your bad behaviour. You can tell them you were taking out a bad mood on them, and ask them to understand, because you were afraid your father would punish you for being in what he sees as the wrong house. I assume he would?"

"You ... you would believe me if I told you he will beat me?"

"Son, I was whipped until I lost consciousness when I came home at Christmas after having been sorted into Gryffindor. I have no doubt that your father will beat you. I must speak to Cissy. Maybe she'd be ready for a divorce before Christmas."

"Can ... can you explain to the boys in my dorm?" asked Draco.

"Very well. You stay here and finish your cocoa; I'll be back shortly."

Whatever Sirius had said to Dean and Seamus and Justin, Draco did not know, but when the DADA professor had taken him back to his dormitory, they had muttered apologies of their own, and apologising back had been surprisingly easy. Justin explained that his father had a friend from his own schooldays at Eton who was like an uncle because the Finch-Fletchleys had given him a home in the holidays, because of an abusive father, and welcomed Draco to come home with him.

If anyone had told Draco earlier that day that he would be best friends with a muggleborn boy he would have sneered.

As it was, he was seeking his own Gryffindor courage to oppose his father.

* _ **end flashback**_.*

"Dumbledore! I demand that my son be re-sorted! What sort of joke is this, placing a Malfoy into Gryffindor?"

"Well, well," drawled Sirius. "My family were never such ill-bred upstarts as to come and start upbraiding the headmaster when I was sorted into Griffindor. Surely you remember, Lucius, as you were in the fifth that year? You were a prefect, as I recall, but not a very good one. I have a copy of Filch's detentions for your peccadilloes. Fine behaviour for a prefect, always groping someone in a broom cupboard, was it a shock when you discovered that Gilderoy Lockhart was a boy after you grabbed his arse? I really wonder that Narcissa didn't run out on you the way Andromeda did, after all, I'd have said any other husband would be an improvement on you."

"Sirius!" Dumbledore frowned at his wayward professor.

"I have no interest in Black's insults," sneered Lucius.

"How unfortunate for you," murmured Sirius, who had a lot of blackmail material on Lucius from Kreacher.

"Lucius, my dear boy, why are you making such a fuss? Aren't you pleased that Draco has shown himself to be brave and bold?" The twinkle in the headmaster's eye infuriated Malfoy.

"Malfoys are always in Slytherin House!" ground out Malfoy.

"Always is a long time, and Malfoys haven't been around for a long time," smirked Sirius. "Almost half-bloods really. And of course the first Malfoy to go to Hogwarts was a Hufflepuff. Egidius Malfoy, and his sister Maud. It was the Hufflepuff work ethic which gave the Malfoy family enough wealth for the rather Gryffindorish Orme Malfoy to take outrageous risks with the family money, and to then call himself Malfoy of Malfoy Manor, having bought it from a muggle family who had fallen on hard times. And since then, most Malfoys have been in Slytherin, but only in recent history."

This was not helping Malfoy to calm down.

"Sirius! House history is irrelevant," chided Dumbledore.

"Of course, Headmaster, and Lucius also quite understands that," said Sirius. "Which is why he realises how futile it is to call for a resorting for his son."

"Indeed," said Dumbledore. "Lucius, I suggest you return quietly home."

"Like hell I will! I'll take this to the governors!"

"Excuse me, Lucius? Take what to the governors? That the sorting hat performed its function? How is that a matter for the governors?"

"Albus, don't show up Lucius' bad breeding so much," said Sirius. "He might think that the twelve thousand galleons loan to Peter Parkinson would obligate the head of an ancient house to flout custom, and you don't want to make him a laughing stock."

Dumbldore frowned at Sirius, who was looking quite innocent.

"What? How ...?" Lucius looked shaken.

Sirius smirked.

"You'd be amazed how much the Head of House Black is able to find out about a vassal house like Malfoy," he said.

"VASSAL?"

"You willingly married a scion of House Black. It makes your house a vassal of mine," said Sirius, who had dredged up some very obscure medieval customs just to annoy Lucius.

Lucius Malfoy left, but not without giving his son a poisonous look, which threatened retribution.

The look was enough to quieten any doubts the rest of the Gryffindor boys might have had.

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Severus had no idea how far reaching were the consequences of his letter to Wizarding Child Services. They took a very dim view of the matter, and on visiting the Weasley household also discovered that the youngest child, Ginevra, had been actively encouraged by her mother to expect to meet and marry the absent Boy-who-lived when he [inevitably] returned to Hogwarts. Ginny Weasley was placed into care with the nearest suitable relative, Andromeda Tonks, née Black, who was a cousin of Ginny's father, and whose daughter was at school in her final year. The twins and Percy were questioned, in the presence of Minerva McGonagall, and told the Child Service aurors more than they realised. The school-age Weasley children were not to return to the Burrow until Molly Weasley had successfully completed parenting classes and dealt with her anger issues.

The anger issues in dealing with the Child Services aurors were sufficient to land Mrs. Weasley in a holding cell overnight, and a medical examination to see whether she was fit to plead or not. Her vitriolic outbursts by howler, not confined to members of her own family but also, as Percy had admitted, to girlfriends felt to have let one of her boys down, were not normal, and it had to be determined whether Molly Weasley needed long term care in St Mungos, or a custodial sentence.

Minerva was shocked to discover abuse in her house, and Filius in his.

"We need someone to teach us how to look for the signs," said Minerva. "Having had the answers from Poppy, I can see in the cases she found, but ..."

"I'd recommend a muggleborn who has returned to the muggle world who is a trained mind healer," said Severus. "Muggle mind-healing is actually more advanced than wizarding mind-healing, because they don't just rely on legilimensy as most of our mind-healers do. They use techniques of leading those who need help to find their own solutions, which leaves them stronger; and overcoming difficulties is much better than having the difficulties obliviated, because obliviation always leaves a feeling that you are missing something, which can cause its own problems."

"I would concur," said Pomona Sprout. "I called on a muggleborn alumnus of mine when I first discovered an abused child in my house."

"Well, if Poppy is able to find ..." Dumbledore began.

"No, Albus, Poppy is not able to find it all, only physical abuse," said Minerva. "And that's a good start, but we need to recognise the child who has problems of self-worth. Such as I wager Mr. Longbottom might have had, if Severus had not cured his parents. Augusta is rather exacting."

"Quite so," said Dumbledore, thinking how inconvenient it was that Severus had not only cured the Longbottoms and reduced the tractability of his weapon against Tom Riddle, but had also cured lycanthropy, so his token werewolf was no longer available to infiltrate Tom's ranks.

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Not having a scar, Harry had not experienced any mysterious headaches from Quirrel, in class or in the great hall. He and his friends were too busy enjoying learning new things and running a pool on who was going to be bitten first by the Cerberus on the third floor.

They had bribed the Weasley twins to look and see what it was.

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Neville had had a few uncomfortable moments when the head called him to his office.

"Lemon drop?" said the headmaster.

"No, thank you sir," said Neville.

Dumbledore beamed on him.

"Well, my dear boy, I am sure you are delighted to have your parents back," he said.

"It means the world to me, sir," said Neville. "Are you trying to get around to telling me that I am the other person named in the prophecy regarding Voldemort?"

Dumbledore swallowed a lemon drop whole and choked hard. Neville got up to pat him on the back, rather harder than was strictly necessary.

"What do you know about the prophecy?" the headmaster croaked, after swallowing a glass of summoned water.

"Oh, all of it. But I haven't been marked as his equal so I don't count," said Neville. "Dad told me, so you wouldn't get any funny ideas."

Dumbledore silently cursed Frank Longbottom.

The door burst open.

"Headmaster, can you come quickly? The great hall is flooded, and the ghost Myrtle appears to be intoxicated," said Minerva.

"Dear me! I shall be right back, my boy," said Dumbledore.

Neville grinned. That was a spectacular piece of diversion run by his friends.

Now the paintings.

He addressed Phineas Nigellus politely.

"I shouldn't think it was a ghost, though, who was responsible for ripping paintings on the ground floor, would you?" he said.

This had all the subjects of the paintings leave to see what was going on.

"Accio Potter invisibility cloak!" cried Neville. He was quick to fold it up and put in his pocket. "Accio Potter library books!" he called again, and as the half dozen or so books flew towards him, he used the dedicated reducing wand Aunt Lily had made. That summoning spell Aunt Lily had taught him was great, thought Neville as he stowed the tiny books. He was sitting innocently in his chair when the paintings returned.

"What ripped paintings?" demanded Phineas Nigellus.

"Are they not there? I was sure I heard something."

"Stupid boy," said Phineas Nigellus.

Dumbledore returned next looking slightly the worse for wear. Avoiding Myrtle's amorous if insubstantial embraces had been harrowing. Whoever could have tipped a whole bottle of Bob Ogden's finest down the toilet the juvenile ghost inhabited!

Dumbledore had entirely lost his rhythm, not that the boy's admission that his father had warned him not to believe anything about being a chosen one. He chatted vaguely for a moment and dismissed the boy.

Another time, perhaps.

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Neville, Harry and Hermione tried not to snigger as they huddled together under the invisibility cloak, eating chocolate, and watching who was going to try the door on the third corridor. Mrs. Norris wound her way around their legs adoringly as Hermione absently fed her catnip treats. As Harry had said, when they found out that the caretaker's cat spied on students, suborning the enemy was better than defeating them.

Weasley and Crabbe had tried to get in, and had been frustrated by a simple locked door. Michael Corner and Terry Boot had used unlocking charms and had fled howling. Nymphadora Tonks had most surprisingly morphed into Hagrid and had petted the Cerberus, resuming her own shape on leaving. Her younger house members gave her much kudos for this. They knew Tonks from her familial connection with Uncle Padfoot, but she was so much older than they, that she was not very well known to them.

The four Gryffindor boys also benefitted from Draco's pureblood training in spells, and opened the door. They immediately slammed it shut.

"It's a feckin' three headed dog," said Seamus, unnecessarily.

"Cerberus," said Draco.

"What?" Dean asked

"Greek mythology," said Justin. "Cerberus guarded the way to hell, and Orpheus ... can it be that simple?"

"What?" asked Draco.

"Orpheus charmed it by playing his lyre."

"We don't have a lyre, that's Lavender Brown," quipped Dean.

"Music, you idiot," said Justin.

"If it works, you're so going to have to send for your muggle books on classics you go on about," said Draco. "I would never have realised muggles have knowledge of the wizarding world that they normally keep on restricted shelves hidden in stories."

"Ok, who can whistle?" said Justin. They decided on Greensleeves, which everyone knew, and managed a shaky rendition as they opened the door.

"Bloody hell, it works," said Seamus' voice. "Keep whistling you three and I'll open the trapdoor."

"Trapdoor?" mutterer Harry.

"Oh well, let them play with it," said Hermione. "I still have a potions essay to finish and if it isn't an O grade, Dad is going to dismember me and feed me to flobberworms."

"Why do you think I do his first?" asked Harry.

"But I want to enjoy writing them at my leisure," whined Hermione.

"He's really tough as a teacher," said Neville, "But I really enjoy his classes, he makes us think. Do you realise the Slytherin and Gryffindor losers just get on with the potions he puts on the board, and don't actually ask for further guidance?"

"Their loss," said Hermione. "Though I will have a word with him, because the muggleborn and muggleraised have no idea about how to prepare things, and it's not in any of the books. I'll be glad when his books are produced in enough quantities to be standard."

"And you two have been chopping ingredients almost since you could toddle," said Neville.

"Mum got us started," shrugged Harry.

They returned to their common room.

"Wotcha, Hagrid," said Harry, cheekily to Tonks.

"Oy! Where were you?"

"That's for us to know and you to wonder about," said Harry. "The secret is to play music to the beast."

The Gryffindor four were a little battered when they turned up for breakfast next morning, and Hermione reported that Draco Malfoy had been heard to growl that he would never play a game of chess ever again.

Sirius was looking irritable, and had a word with Severus on the way to breakfast.

The children would not, however, have their curiosity fulfilled.

"Padfoot?" said Severus. "You look a little frazzled."

"A few very nasty booby traps on my office," said Sirius. "Someone doesn't like me. Do you think Lucius paid Quirinius to do it? He's been acting very strangely this year."

"I don't know the fellow; and to be honest I don't think the school teaches muggle studies very well. I can't see Quirrel managing to blend in with muggles, especially with his turban. Besides, why would he have it in for you?"

"He only started wearing it, and all that garlic pomatum, after his run in with a vampire over the holidays," shrugged Sirius. "He went off vampire hunting, he says, because he was expecting me to stand down from DADA and he volunteered to take over."

"Why should he expect that?"

"He's only been here a year, and he's heard of the curse. He was most surprised to see me," said Sirius.

"That wimp?" scoffed Severus. "If there was a DADA slot vacant, it would make more sense for you to do a year in potions and for me to take it. I know he's a dab hand at handling trolls, but I suspect that's because he thinks muggles and trolls are on a par."

Sirius shrugged.

"He's a creep," he said. "I just get geese walking over my grave whenever I talk to him."

"That's from rolling in things you should avoid, you mangy mutt," said Severus.

"Or the stench of the carrion you eat when your first year Gryffindors die of horror in your classroom," said Sirius, amicably.

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It was fortunate that Harry, Hermione and Neville had learned a very wide repertoire of corridor jinxes, because there was a point all Hufflepuffs had to pass which was used by the bigger Slytherin to ambush smaller Puffs to hex. Being in the dungeons, it was unlikely that anyone else would come past, unless the victims were lucky enough to have either House Head come that way.

Once Severus had been apprised of the problem by his children, he began doing so, instead of using the secret passage, and Pomona too made spot checks.

"What we need, Professor Sprout," said Neville, "Is a herbology display."

"I am not sure that I follow your reasoning, Mr. Longbottom," said Pomona.

"Professor, for the Snakes to get to the ambush they have to pass a certain point which we do not. And I have a Sagittarius spinifora."

Pomona's eyes lit up.

"My dear boy! A herbology display we shall have. A few Mimbulus mimbletonia as well, I think, and fanged geraniums. Is your Sagittarius ready to breed then?"

"I believe so," said Neville. "It fired a few half-hearted spines at me this morning. I'm hoping for a Mimbulus mimbletonia for my birthday, from Uncle Algie, he works for the plant section of the beast division in the ministry."

"First time Algie Hubble has been any use for anything then," sniffed Pomona. "I will set up artificial lights to encourage the plants. A few spines, bites and stink sap should discourage anyone interfering with my Badgers."

The ambushes on Puffs pretty much stopped once the display was in place, it being hard to sneak up on people whilst yelping at being shot with spines, or smelling rather a lot of stinksap.

The cream of the joke on Slytherin House was when the Amaryllis amorosa mistook Marcus Flint's aftershave for a feminine smell, and attempted to mate with him. The Slytherin Quidditch captain sat rather gingerly on his broom for a while.

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Narcissa Malfoy listened to her husband ranting about how he was going to _crucio_ their son into insensibility and then whip the skin off his back with a fire-whip when he got home for Christmas. Once she had been infatuated by the handsome blond, but time and Lucius' predilections had killed any warmer feelings she had for him. The best thing Narcissa had received from Lucius, in her book, was Draco, and the bastard was trying to take her baby from her by making him as much a loser as his father.

Narcissa waited until Lucius had gone out, and wrote to her cousin, Sirius, asking for him to arrange a divorce for her, and to take Malfoy Manor in lieu of the monetary value of her dowry, as that would mean she could keep the elves. Narcissa had some concept of _noblesse oblige_ towards her elves. She might have agreed with her Aunt Walburga over killing them when they were too old to work, but she perceived this as a mercy killing The way Lucius treated his elves reminded her of the trashy muggle bodice-rippers she had enjoyed in her teen years, where the low born but wealthy _chevaliers d'industrie_ mistreated servants and the inevitable well-born but poverty-stricken governess whose better manners won the heart of the visiting duke, not the pug-faced daughter of the _nouveau riche._

She called for Kreacher to take the letter.

"Draco, will you stay behind?" asked Sirius, after teaching the class of Gryffindors and Slytherin.

"You'll get yours for being out of bounds," hissed Weasley.

"Mr. Weasley, how would you know if my nephew was out of bounds unless you were out of bounds too?" asked Sirius. "You ought to know by now not to irritate Fluffy, it upsets Hagrid."

"That ruddy monster's name is Fluffy?" squawked Weasley, more or less in the same words as Draco was thinking.

"Why not?" asked Sirius. "He is quite fluffy, isn't he, Draco?"

"Er, yes, sir," said Draco, who had become adept at soothing the Cerberus without putting it to sleep, and had dared to pet it. "Affectionate little devil," he added, boldly.

"That's my nephew," grinned Sirius. "Weasley, I didn't want to talk to you; you may go, and so may the Gryffindor protection squad, Draco isn't in trouble."

The other Gryffindor boys nodded, and departed, and so, unwillingly, did Weasley.

Sirius regarded Draco.

"Your mother has requested a divorce, on grounds of your father threatening to use the cruciatus curse and flame whip spells on you," he said. "Now, I think it's a no-brainer whether you choose to be a Black or a Malfoy, but I am bound as head of the House of Black to ask you to make a choice."

Draco paled.

"I'd rather be a nameless bastard and live with my mother under your protection, sir," he said.

"Oh, you won't be a nameless bastard, you'd assume the name Black, and you'd be my heir apparent," said Sirius. "I never managed to settle down and produce an heir. I might do in the future, but I won't leave you without substance."

"Thank you, sir," said Draco, with real gratitude. "May I ask a question?"

"I could be unkind and say 'you just did,'" said Sirius, "But I won't. What did you want to know?"

"How did you know we were visiting er, Fluffy and ... and so on?"

"Oh, you were seen, and I was let know unofficially, in case you were hurt again. It's no big secret, Draco, and I'm afraid I am about to destroy your innocent faith in authority by telling you that the Headmaster is a senile old coot with a few bees in his bonnet about the 'greater good', a phrase he borrowed from Gellert Grindelwald. Well, at least Grindelwald had ideals, unlike Tom Marvolo Riddle, or self-styled Lord Voldemort, who, being a half-blood hates muggles and purebloods equally. But there was a stupid prophecy about either Neville Longbottom or Harry Potter having to kill him or be killed, and the old coot thinks that it means that the Chosen One has to be killed before Riddle can be killed. In effect, he's setting up Neville, who never was marked as the Chosen One, to practice being self-sacrificing on such challenges as the business on the third floor. Neville, who knows what is what, has refused such idiocy, and I would like to warn you that after the room of chess pieces there is a troll."

"Shit!" said Draco.

"Quite," said Sirius. "That's what they smell like, and more or less what they have between the ears."

Draco grinned. His mother would have cast a saponify spell on his mouth for that, but Uncle Sirius was actually quite laid back about things like swearing and minor pranks.

"Can I tell my friends?"

"You can, and what is more, you may," said Sirius. "Feel free to spread the prophecy around as well, that will really prank ... er, annoy the old coot."

Draco grinned, as Sirius handed him a slip of parchment with the prophecy on it.

"But this is vague enough to be meaningless, sir," he said.

"Well at least you have my family brains," said Sirius. "On the offchance that it does mean Harry Potter, he'll have enough help when the time comes. And more than that, I won't tell you."

"Rather him than me," said Draco. "Is the headmaster supposed to keep class five-x animals in school?"

"No, but he won't listen to reason," said Sirius. "Of course, when you are Draco Black, your mother can make a formal complaint to the governors."

Draco grinned.

"Teach me all you know about politics, Uncle Sirius," he said. "I sit at your feet."

"I will indeed," said Sirius, thinking that if he had a sucker in the family who actually enjoyed politics, he had a proxy on the Wizgamot ready made as soon as the boy was fourteen.

sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

When Halloween came round, and Quirrell let a troll into the castle, it was Millie Bulstrode who was sobbing in the toilet, because of the unkindness of Ronald Weasley and Vincent Crabbe. Fortunately for her, Daphne Greengrasse reported the girl missing as Severus rounded up his house and told them under no account to go to their common room if a troll was in the dungeons. Startled, Pomona gave the same order, as Severus hurried for the toilets at the direction of Daphne. A troll posed very few challenges for the archmage that Severus had become with dedicated study, and fortunately, Millie was only badly bruised from flying debris as she dodged the troll's club. Severus took her to Poppy Pomfrey, and returned to inform the school that all was well before taking his house back to finish the feast in their common room.

Harry and Hermione did not really want to celebrate, knowing that Hermione had lost both her real parents, and Harry had lost his father. As a result, they were chatting to Fluffy when Professor Quirrell came in.

"You're Harry P...P...Potter," said Quirrell.

He lunged for Harry to grab him, and screamed as the runic protection Lily had used burned his flesh away

Fluffy disliked having his friends grabbed, and did his part of biting Quirrell, and Hermione used Fluffy's dog bowl to hit him over the head, causing the face on the back of his head to screech. Quirrel died, and a puff of black soul left his body, swearing vengeance before it gave a thin squeal of horror and vanished.

Two children fled, sobbing, to find their father, and Fluffy kicked the remains into the corner and peed on it.

"There's one left," Harry sobbed, sitting on Severus' lap for all the world like one of his younger siblings. Hermione was on the other knee.

"No, I don't think there is," said Severus. "I think that squeal you described was Mouldywarts discovering that Uncle Remus wandered over to Albania with the horcrux compass and killed a certain snake there. I'm glad he got it in time; I only heard from him this morning."

Harry relaxed.

"Why did he burn?" he asked. "It was horrible."

"I think the spell your mother cast which bounced that first killing curse was still working," said Severus. "I am going to let Pomona know that you two are going home to Mummy for a few days, and then I'm going to give Albus Manyhats a certain potion your mother and I developed. I told him that I did not like his foolish games and that he should do something about Quirrelmort."

The children were only half listening, pleased to be going home to the comfort of their mother.

 _And if Albus Manyhats had had his way,_ thought Severus, _my little boy would have been alone without a family to turn to after you had tricked him into actually running the gauntlet of your puerile trap. And poor little Millie Bulstrode would not be hurt and frightened._

"I warned you, Albus," said Severus. "I am not happy about having my children terrorised by Voldemort when they were petting Fluffy. Nor am I happy that Millicent Bulstrode was hurt by the troll Quirrellmort let in."

"Quirrellmort? What makes you name him that?" Albus peered at Severus.

"Don't even try legilimensy on me, old man," snapped Severus. "Well, as the kids described a black apparition trying to arise from the dead body before it screamed and realised there were no horcruxes left, I thought the inference was obvious."

"What do you know about horcruxes?" the tone was accusing, disappointed.

"More than I would have wanted to, had I not desired to destroy Voldemort," said Severus, calmly. "The Marauders have taken care of them all, Albus. Including the one in Harry. You should really have trusted more people with more information. Working as a team, we killed them all over the last ten years, and what have you done to even find them?"

Albus stared.

"Are ... who are you?"

"I am a father, Albus. Somthing you don't understand. A father will do anything to protect his children."

"But Harry or Neville has to die before Voldemort can be defeated. It is sad, but ..."

He gulped as Severus seized him by the throat with one strong, sinewy potioneer's hand.

"Get with the times, old man. Voldemort is defeated. Permanently. He is dead. Your prophecy is fulfilled without misinterpretation that an innocent has to die first. The words are 'neither can survive while the other lives' which means one of them has to die. Don't you get it? If you had set up Harry to die, then that would have made Voldemort invincible. Because the other would cease to live."

"But ... he was supposed to throw the killing curse at Harry and kill the final horcrux ..."

"There is no final horcrux. Harry has no scar any more. You really don't get it. Well, enjoy your idiotic and false plans and your lemon drops. I can't bear to be in your presence."

"I am sorry you feel like that, Severus. We will discuss it in the morning, and I will explain why my way is for the Greater Good."

"Goodnight Mrs. Grindlewald," said Severus. It was intended as a jibe about Albus' orientation and the use of Grindlewald's catchphrase, but Albus paled, wondering how much the American Potions Master knew, and how. He would have to arrange some kind of tragic accident for the man; it was a shame, as the children seemed to be doing well under his tutelage, but it was for the Greater Good that he not be misunderstood, if Severus talked. Albus started chain-eating lemon drops.

He had not noticed Severus performing a smooth switching charm, and only wondered why these lemon drops were more delicious than usual.

Severus came by at midnight to pick up the baby girl, who was crawling unhappily about in the garish orange and black and silver robes.

Small children do not notice things like pregnancy, and Harry and Hermione accepted that another Halloween orphan needed to be adopted. Alyssum Gwen joined the Granger family, with no preconceived ideas about any Greater Good other than needing a bottle.

 **Finis**


End file.
